Keeping It Up is an insider’s guide to what women
really want in the bedroom and how they think and feel about sex. This light
and easy book will help set the stage for acting out your wildest fantasies,
for having the conversations that are difficult to have, and for a lifetime of
amazing sexual encounters with the woman you love.

Saturday, January 30, 2016

You have to understand a
few things about me before you can really appreciate this story. If you picture me as an award -winning
basketball player in high school or even one who played a bit in university,
but had to quit to focus more on my studies, you’d be wrong. If you picture me as a grade school baseball
player enthusiastically cheering the team to its big win, you’d be wrong. If you picture me riding a bike or even
bowling a spare at a five-pin bowling alley at any time in my life, you’d be
wrong.

You might begin to get
the picture if you saw me sobbing in 1967 when everyone was supposed to do
those darned Participation exercises to get at least a red badge for
participating. I stayed home the day
they gave out the badges.

You might begin to get
the picture if you imagined me hiding behind the piano in the gym when it was
time to jump over that horse in grade seven.
If I got caught, I’d simply say, “I’ve had my turn.”

You’d really begin to
get my number when I confess that I was the one who lied about my background to
get my first teaching job in lean times, and ended up being assigned to half
time Junior Phys Ed. We did a lot of
health and folk dancing that year.

I am one who carried my
body around for many years, resenting that my intermittent, begrudging efforts
at that nasty thing called exercise didn’t give me hip bones that stuck out –
ever!

Nor did it give me a waist that
went in. Or a size where my hips and my
breasts matched. In fact, I always
believed if the rest of my body matched my bust size, I’d be pretty well perfect.

So understanding these
things about me, you can begin to imagine my inner turmoil as I lied about my
age to get into the SIM Gym (Seniors In Motion).

It wasn’t the lying that horrified me, as I’d
had much practice in that department about “things exercise” throughout my
life. (For the record, I don’t have to
lie anymore. I’m well in the over
fifty-five range now. )

Much has been written
about my first time there, my discovery of the meaning of “rows”, “reps” and
other gym-jargon, and the shame with which I realize I need to put stickers on
the calendar not just for ninety days like most change theories suggest, but to
this day.

After seven years, I
continue to be motivated by the sight of even the cheapest sticker. I race to the calendar as soon as I get home,
put on my sticker and gloat – even before turning on the coffee pot or
showering. If I’m in town, I rarely miss
– dutifully attending two strength-training sessions a week and often two or
three aqua fit sessions, too.

Given my shady
background, you can guess that my transformation hasn’t come by falling in love
with physical activity. Although I can
claim that I am slightly less grossed out than I used to be at the sensation of
sweating.

It’s all about the
people. I am the youngest in the class,
the least fit, and the special needs child, having to adapt every one of the circuit
stations, especially since I tore my meniscus and a few other bits of my knee a
couple of years back.

My classmates cheer me
on especially when I’m about to burst into tears and run out of the room. (Yes,
I admit, it still happens but not as many times as in the first five years.) They talk to me about other things, reminding
me I have a brain and expertise in other parts of my life. I am more than the vision of my weakest
parts.

But the greatest of all
are the trainers! Not once, but twice,
they’ve made surprise sessions that have thrilled and delighted us and made me
feel oh, so special.

The first was on my
birthday a couple of years ago.
Grudgingly, I went to my Strength Training Class because you know it’s a
good thing to do for yourself – working out on your birthday. So I’m told.

When I arrived I was
greeted with a crown to put on because it was a Princess Party! One other woman’s birthday was close to mine
and each of us was given special wands to begin the relay. After completing each exercise, the wand was
passed to the next in our team until every muscle group was worked and the
singing of the wand had been enjoyed to the fullest.

Next came a big box held
high over each of our heads. As we chose
a plastic bag full of goodies from the box we read out the body part that was
to be worked with our turn. Mine was
triceps, so I led the group through my favourite triceps exercise and was
thereby allowed to keep my baggie full of candy necklace, fun bubbles, a ring
pop and a chocolate golden coin.

We had intervals between
which we were to squat while putting together a jigsaw puzzle of an ugly frog –
reminding us of the many kisses required to find our handsome prince.

After much laughter and
a pretty good workout, we moved out of the gym studio to find a table bedecked
with a princess tablecloth, matching napkins and plates. Beautiful homemade treats were nibbled as we
chatted and sipped coffee. One of the
trainers had even made star-shaped sugar cookies mounted on wands ready-wrapped
to take home.

I know those trainers
enough to understand that they had great fun planning and preparing the
Surprise Princess Party for us, but words could not express the gratitude so many
of us felt at their efforts, but we tried:

“I can’t remember when
I’ve laughed so hard!”

“I’ve never been to such
an amazing birthday party!”

“I can’t believe the
work they did to get all this ready for us!”

And you’ll never guess
what happened the last Thursday before my wedding! They planned another special day -
wedding-themed – complete with special bouquets for me and another woman who
was to be mother-of-the-groom two weeks later.
We’re gob smacked. It truly is
the best gym ever!

Lori Edey loves to embrace the role of Princess whenever she can. Being humbled by real life, three felines,
and her struggles at the gym, the opportunities are few and far between.

Whatever you're writing ~ fiction or
nonfiction ~ readers will care about your story only if they care about your
people. In this workshop, you'll learn techniques for creating fictional
characters and depicting real people. You’ll learn how to breathe life into the
page so that your characters start telling you how the story should go.

Workshop leader Brian Henry has
been a book editor and creative writing instructor for more than 25 years. He
publishes Quick Brown Fox, Canada’s most popular blog for
writers, teaches creative writing at Ryerson University and has led workshops
everywhere from Boston to Buffalo and from Sarnia to Saint John. But his
proudest boast is that he has helped many of
his students get their first book published and launch their careers as
authors.
What past participants say:

Hi, Brian.

I just wanted to thank you for the “Writing Great
Characters” workshop on Saturday. I have been stalled in my writing, and
I realized at the workshop it was because I didn't have a clear picture of my
character's personality and motives. Your exercises and handouts have
inspired me and I'm happy to say I spent the rest of the weekend writing.
Writer's block conquered (for now, ha)!
Looking forward to all the upcoming workshops.

Seasons greetings! I'm happy to
announce that my spiritual nonfiction book The
Healing Frequency: Transform your Life through the Wisdom, Power and Clarity of
Inner Stillness was released on January 5 through
Limitless Publishing.

Best,

Jiulio
Consiglio

To read more about The Healing Frequency or to order a copy, see here.

I'm
one of the editors of a new literary website called Don't Talk to Me About Love. I'm sending this letter to you personally in the hopes
that you will peruse our site and spread the word to fellow writers and friends
about our debut contest, offering $1,000.00 each in fiction, non-fiction and
poetry for pieces about love. (Note that the contest deadline is Valentine’s Day!)

P.S. If you enjoy the site, please subscribe
to the website. (It's free.) You can also like us on Facebook or tweet about
us. Happy New Year!

Note: Winning
entries also receive a critique from The
Rights Factory and both winners and honorable
mentions will be published on Don’t Talk
to Me About Love. Entry fee is $20. Full contest details here.

Don’t Talk
to Me About Love also accepts regular submissions of fiction, nonfiction, poetry
and artwork and pays $50, but there is a $3 admin fee for submissions. Full
details here.

The Spadina Literary Review is
published three times yearly, online only. We are interested in short
fiction and short non-fiction (500 – 3,500 words), as well as reviews of
nonfiction books. We are interested in Toronto-based civic issues. We run
one or two poems each issue. No payment at this time. We’re always open
for material. Submit by email to:spadlit@gmail.com

Details: The competition awards $2,600 in cash prizes. It
is open to all New Brunswick residents and members of the Writers’ Federation
of New Brunswick.

The prize
purse includes the David Adams Richards Prize, awarded for a collection of
short stories, a novella, or a substantial part of a longer novel.

The Writing Competition
recognizes outstanding work in other genres through the Douglas Kyle Memorial
Prize for short fiction, the
Alfred G. Bailey Prize for poetry manuscripts, the Dawn Watson Memorial Prize
for a single poem, and the Fog Lit Books for Young People Prize.

The
Federation also offers prizes in creative non-fiction categories. Writers of
ages 13 to 18 can enter their poems or stories into the Sheree Fitch Prize
category for teen writers.

Entry fee
is $35.

Entries must be postmarked by February 29,
2016. Contest guidelines and entry
details here.

Don't ever miss a post on Quick Brown Fox. Fill in your email in the box to the right under my bio, and get each post delivered to your Inbox. Also, if you’re not yet on my newsletter, send me an email, including your locale, to: brianhenry@sympatico.ca ~ Brian

The Next Step in Creative Writing
will challenge you to take a step up in your
writing. Over the ten weeks of classes, you’ll
be asked to bring in five pieces of your writing for detailed feedback. All
your pieces may be from the same work, such as a novel in progress, or they may
be stand alone pieces. You bring whatever you want to work on.

Besides critiquing pieces, the
instructor will give short lectures at the start of class, addressing the needs
of the group. In addition to learning how to critique your own work and
receiving constructive suggestions about your writing, you’ll discover that
your greatest growth as a writer comes from critiquing other people’s work and
form seeing how your classmates approach and critique a piece of writing and
how they write and re-write. This is a supportive group and a rewarding class.

Check out two reviews of the Next Step coursehere. And see more reviews of
Brian’s courses and workshops here.

Instructor Brian Henryhas been a book editor and creative writing
instructor for more than 25 years. He publishes Quick Brown Fox, Canada’s
most popular blog for writers, teaches creative writing at Ryerson University
and has led workshops everywhere from Boston to Buffalo and from Sarnia to
Saint John. But his proudest boast is that he has helped many of his
students get their first book published and launch their careers as
authors.

Don't ever miss a post on Quick Brown Fox. Fill in your email in the box to the right under my bio, and get each post delivered to your Inbox. Also, if you’re not yet on my newsletter, send me an email, including your locale, to: brianhenry@sympatico.ca ~ Brian

Note: Don't ever miss a post on
Quick Brown Fox. Fill in your email in the box to the right under my bio, and
get each post delivered to your Inbox. Also, if you’re not yet on my
newsletter, send me an email, including your locale, to: brianhenry@sympatico.ca ~ Brian

The Helen Heller Agency describes itself as a full service boutique literary agency specializing in
internationally successful front-list adult and young adult fiction and
non-fiction, with clients at the top of the New York Times and London Sunday
Times lists. As a boutique agency, we are proud to be able to maintain strong
relationships and work closely with our authors at all stages of the publishing
process. You can follow the agency on Twitter @TheHHAgency

Barbara Bersonhas been an editor for the past 30 years, first in her native New York,
then in Toronto, where she was most recently a senior editor with Penguin Canada, one of Canada’s premier general publishers. Barbara
has worked with both established and emerging authors of literary fiction,
nonfiction, and young adult books. Her authors have been the recipients of
numerous prizes, including the Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Award.

“I’m looking for literary and YA fiction, as well
as narrative non-fiction,” says Barbara. “What I mean by literary fiction is a
great story, excellently told. My taste has always been somewhat eclectic, but
defined consistently by strong writing, authentic characters, thematic
ambition, and a deep engagement, even inventiveness in story form and in story
itself. The brilliant writer Zsuszi Gartner said something that stayed
with me, to the effect that how one tells the story becomes the
story itself.

Put it to Barbara’s attention and include a short sample of your work.
No attachments.

Note: Barbara will be one of three guest speakers at the Writing for Children & for Yong Adults min-conferenceon Saturday, April 21, along with Patricia Ocampo, Children's Books editor at Simon & Schustur, and Young Adult author Tanaz Bhathena. (Details here)

.

The two other agents at the agency are also accepting new authors:
agency founder Helen Heller and her daughter Sarah Heller, who specializes in
establishing new authors…

Helen Heller
has spent her career in publishing and specializes in thrillers and major
front-list fiction. She likes a big story well told and handles a number of
internationally bestselling and multiple-award-winning authors. One of Helen’s
bestselling authors is Kelly Armstrong, who many Quick Brown Fox readers
will know from Kelly's appearances as a guest speaker at Brian Henry’s workshops.
Helen is a member of the Association of Authors’ Representatives.

Sarah Heller
has developed an internationally and New York Times bestselling list. She
specializes in establishing new authors with a focus on front list commercial
YA and adult fiction, with a particular interest in high concept historical
fiction. Sarah received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from York University, and is
a graduate of the Advertising program of the Ontario College of Art and Design.

Brian Henry will lead How to Get Published workshops on Saturday, Feb 20, in Kitchener, with literary
agent Olga Filina of The Rights Factory (see here)
and on Saturday, Feb 27, in Brampton with Martha Webb of the McDermid Agency
(see here), andFrom the Horse's Mouth ~ Strategies for Getting Publishedon Saturday, June 18, with Barbara Berson of Helen Heller Agency, Michael Mirolla, publisher Guernica Editions and Bhavna Chauhan, editor, Penguin Random House Canada, at Ryerson University in Toronto (see here).

Also, Brian will lead Writing
for Children & for Young Adults workshops on Saturday,
March 5, in Burlington, with literary agent Monica Pacheco and author Jennifer
Mook-Sang (see here),
on Saturday, Apr 2, in Barrie, with literary agent Rachel Letofsky (see here),
on Saturday, April 30, in Guelph, with Yasemin Uçar, senior editor, Kids
Can Press and authors Jennifer Mook-Sang and Kira Vermond (see here),
and Sunday, May 29, in Ottawa with acclaimed author Alan Cumyn (see here).

Don't ever miss a post on Quick Brown Fox. Fill in your email in the box to the right under my bio, and get each post delivered to your Inbox. Also, if you’re not yet on my newsletter, send me an email, including your locale, to: brianhenry@sympatico.ca ~ Brian

Brian Henry has been a book editor, writer, and creative writing instructor for more than 25 years. He teaches creative writing at Ryerson University. He also leads weekly creative writing courses in Burlington, Mississauga, Oakville and Georgetown and conducts Saturday workshops throughout Ontario. His proudest boast is that he has helped many of his students get published.